Railway trains and rail cars typically include a pneumatic brake system. The brake system is critical to the safe operation of the rail cars and is therefore subject to periodic testing to ensure the integrity and satisfactory performance of the brake system. In the United States, the Association of American Railroads (AAR), in conjunction with the Federal Railway Administration, has promulgated and adopted a Manual of Standards and Recommended Practices. Standard S-4027, Automated Single Car Test Procedure, Conventional Brake Equipment—Design and Performance Requirements, incorporated herein by reference in its entirety for all purposes, provides a series of tests of the rail car brake system that measure the pressures and flow rates of the air in the brake system under various conditions. These pressure and flow rate measurements are then used to verify that the brake system has sufficient physical integrity and will perform satisfactorily under expected operational conditions.
Various devices and methods exist to test rail car brake systems. For example, U.S. Pat. No. 7,054,777, assigned to the same assignee as the present invention and incorporated herein by reference in its entirety for all purposes, describes and illustrates an automated rail car test device that includes a pneumatic circuit connected to an electrical circuit. The pneumatic circuit connects a supply of test air to the brake system being tested, and the electrical circuit is programmed to manipulate various combinations of valves in the pneumatic circuit to allow an operator to accomplish the tests required by S-4027. In the event that a portion of the brake system fails to satisfy an individual test, the operator must repair or replace any faulty part(s) and re-perform those portions of the test that may have been affected by the repair or replacement without verification that the problem was corrected.
Although effective at accomplishing the tests required by S-4027, the automated rail car test devices in the market generally do not assist the operator in troubleshooting or re-testing the brake system. For example, in some instances, the operator may need to disconnect the automated rail car test device from the brake system and connect a manual test device or other valve manifold to the brake system to perform troubleshooting needed to identify the faulty part(s). In addition, the automated rail car test devices in the market provide little or no capability for the operator to test the repair or replacement separately, apart from the tests required by S-4027. As a result, the operator may re-perform some of the tests required by S-4027, only to find that the repair or replacement did not correct the problem, resulting in further delays in successfully completing the tests. Therefore, an improved system and method for testing rail car brake systems that can assist the operator in troubleshooting and re-testing the brake systems would be useful.